


The Kids Who Owned A City

by Milieu



Category: Rune Factory (Video Games), Rune Factory 3: A Fantasy Harvest Moon, Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, Developing Relationship, F/M, Gen, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-22
Updated: 2017-03-22
Packaged: 2018-10-06 05:13:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10326317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milieu/pseuds/Milieu
Summary: Two broke 20-somethings, one apartment, and a lot of scattered dreams that may or may not come true.





	

Life in the concrete jungle wasn't quite as glamorous as either one of them had hoped. Oh sure, there wasn't nearly as much crime or oppression in the city as they had been warned, and the air might not have been as clean as in Sharance or Pelican Town, but it wasn't choking smog. Their little apartment was livable, at the very least, though neither the heat nor the air conditioning worked very well and the kitchen cabinets sagged. They had managed to squeeze two beds and a battered desk into what space they had, and they made due.

Karina had answered the "roommate wanted" ad with a letter rather than a call or email (they didn't have phone towers or even telegraph wires in her hometown, much less computers and an internet infrastructure, she had later explained to a disbelieving Sebastian). She hadn't said outright, but he picked up on the hints that her current living situation was less than ideal in some way or another, and a quick exchange of letters and one brief meeting later, they had determined that they could probably coexist without getting too much in each other's way. Sebastian hardly ever got a full night's sleep and Karina would sleep well into the afternoon. He always seemed to be working, tapping out lines of code, muttering to himself and downing energy drinks and Joja Cola, going out for a smoke every evening while his code compiled. Karina could hardly hold down a job that demanded regular hours (truly, the only reason she had maintained employment at the general store in Sharance was because her family owned it), but she could read and write the archaic languages that only the small towns on the edge of Norad still used and her bookkeeping skills, though rarely flaunted, were stellar. They were both freelancers, in their own way.

"Maybe I'll become a street magician," she said while boiling the cheap noodles that made up dinner on one of the rare evenings where they were both awake to have a meal at the same time.

"You'd fall asleep and someone would run off with all your money," Sebastian replied without looking up from his laptop.

Karina "hmph"ed in the way that she did when someone else was right and she didn't want to admit it. "Whatever, it's not like I do the kind of magic that entertains people anyway. They want card tricks, not real magic."

"Not unless they can exploit it." He did glance up when she set a bowl in front of him and murmured a thanks. He took a sip of broth, making a face.

"What's wrong?"

"Is there egg in this?"

Karina nodded, stirring her own noodles to help them cool. "Yeah, I heard that was a good trick to thicken the broth. You're not allergic, are you?"

Sebastian looked dourly as his bowl. "No, I just kinda... hate eggs."

"Well unless you hate them more than you hate starving, you'd better eat up anyway."

It was Sebastian's turn to make some sort of resigned noise to someone else being right. He tried to eat quickly enough that he wouldn't taste the egg too much. He turned his attention back to the computer when he finished. "You can leave the dishes in the sink, I'll take care of them when I'm done."

"Alright. I've got to finish translating this thing for tomorrow anyway." The thing in question was really just an ad that a local company wanted to start running in the further reaches of Norad. Karina didn't have much love for the job, but they paid decently for translation work since so few could do it. "I should ask for a position where I can just manage the books. I could do math in my sleep."

"That does sound like a vital skill, considering you sleep 14 hours a day."

She stuck her tongue out at him over her shoulder, which he of course didn't notice.

\---

Sebastian returned from his smoke break one evening to find Karina regarding the mess of empty bottles and cans littering his desk with a critical eye. "Are you going to use these for anything?" She asked.

He ran his hands through his hair, and sighed, not in the mood for passive-aggressive hints to clean up his space or whatever she was getting at. "No. I'll take all of that out to recycling when I'm through working tonight."

"No need!" Karina brightened unexpectedly. "I'll take them." Before he could ask what or why, she swept all of the mess into a bag and set it by her bed. "I'm going to visit some of my friends at home," she said, as though that explained everything.

"Are you... going to bring them a bunch of garbage?"

"Yep! Sofia loves junk, and she doesn't have anything from these brands."

"What."

Karina continued as though he hadn't spoken, holding up a necklace that he had noticed her working on somewhat more diligently than her actual work for the last several days. "I made this too, for my other best friend. The pendant is just colored glass, but I think she'll like it."

Sebastian almost said something sarcastic, paused to consider that _his_ two best friends saw nothing out of the ordinary about dumpster diving and ate rocks, respectively, and thought better of it. "Hope they like it, then."

He listened to her fidgeting as she fell asleep and he continued working, and he wondered if she was excited to visit Sharance or anxious.

\---

The visit home hadn't gone so well, Sebastian surmised from the way Karina stormed in without so much as a "hello", tossed her shoes, gloves, scarf, and bag unceremoniously into the corner, and threw herself face-down onto the bed. He wasn't sure if she went to sleep or not, but when evening came and she showed no sign of movement, he busied himself preparing dinner for the two of them. He tried to stir in enough pepper and veggies to cover the taste of the broth; he was getting used to the taste of the egg-enriched noodle broth, but that didn't mean he liked it.

"Hey," he said, standing over Karina's bed but not reaching out to touch her. "Dinner."

Karina grunted into her pillow, signifying that she was indeed awake, but did not move.

"Come on, it'll get cold."

She mumbled something unintelligible and rolled out of bed to trudge to the kitchen table. They ate in uncomfortable silence.

After dinner, Karina changed into her pajamas and then nestled right back into bed, cocooning herself in the sheets. Sebastian cleaned up as usual and went for his usual cigarette before returning to his desk. He was startled when, nearly an hour later, Karina spoke up.

"Has anyone asked you to come back?"

Sebastian paused, hands hovering over his keyboard. "No," he said.  _Why would they?_ was the unspoken addition. After a moment, he turned to look at her, dangling one arm over the back of his chair. "Is that what happened?"

Karina laughed, a bitter, humorless sound. She sat up and reached for the bag she hadn't bothered to unpack, rummaging in a side pocket. When she came up with what she had been looking for, she tossed it onto his desk with a small clatter.

It was a ring, he realized as he brought it closer to the light of his computer screen for a look. The center was set with a diamond, flanked on either side by rubies, all set in a delicately carved silver band. It looked custom-made.

"Like all I needed was someone to promise he'd take care of me, and I'd just happily give up everything I'm working for and spend the rest of my life living in a tree and shipping crops. Silly Karina, you  _thought_ you knew what you wanted, but don't worry! I'll make sure you forget all about your hopes and dreams and that you'll be satisfied living right here forever and ever!" Her voice grew high and mocking and then cracked on the last word. Sebastian looked at the wall, absently turning the ring in his fingers, at a loss for what to say. The idea that a woman would ever be so hurt and offended over a proposal had never really crossed his mind, but right now it made perfect sense.

Karina sniffled. "I just left right afterwards. I ran right to the train station, and didn't even say goodbye to anyone." She drew the blanket around her shoulders again, hugging herself. "I wonder how many of them knew he was planning to do it."

Sebastian didn't have a reply for that either, so he lamely offered up the first thing that crossed his mind. "I bet he's boring. And ugly."

That surprised a short, genuine laugh out of her. "He's alright," she said after a moment of consideration. "We were friends. But I never thought of him that way. I never considered marrying any of the boys in town, not after I got old enough to look in other places." She sighed and laid back down on her side. "Sharance is so small. If everyone just keeps marrying their neighbors, they'll all be related pretty soon."

"Yeah." It was less an agreement about Sharance, seeing as how he had never been there, and more an agreement with the general sentiment. He was far from the only young person who wanted to leave Pelican Town, at least; he was just the first of this generation to make it. There were the people like Sam's family and Karina's would-be fiancé who benefited from small town life, but Sebastian had always felt suffocated.

"You could probably pawn this, at least," he offered a while later, but Karina had fallen asleep by then.

\---

The summer in Zuzu City was stifling, but the little farmer's market that had set up just a few blocks down from their building was a godsend. Karina managed to keep a regular enough schedule to go out twice a week, taking full advantage of discount prices on fish and produce. Even Sebastian's hatred of eggs couldn't argue with those prices, and he complained less when they were able to fancy up their dinners a bit with fish and fresh veggies and seasonings.

Her routine was interrupted one afternoon when she returned to find a girl loitering in front of their door. "Hi?" She said, causing the girl to jump and spin to face her.

"Oh, hi!" The visitor said, seeming flustered. "Um, is this your apartment?"

"Yeah...?"

The girl fiddled with her glasses. "I'm looking for my brother, Sebastian. The doorman said he lived at this number..."

Karina was somewhat surprised, since Sebastian had never mentioned having a sister, but then neither of them talked about their families much. "Yeah, he does. Did you knock?" Sebastian had been parked at his desk like usual when she left.

The girl nodded. "I did, but there was no answer." She looked Karina over with poorly-disguised curiosity, clearly wondering what exactly her relationship to Sebastian was. "Oh, I'm Maru by the way."

"Cool," was the only thing Karina could think of to say. She stepped past Maru to unlock the door. "Uh, you just stay right here, okay? I'll see what Sebastian's up to."

Sebastian was, in fact, still at his desk, slumped over his computer with his mouth open. Karina grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him awake, and tried not to snicker at the impression of the keyboard pressed into the side of his face when he sat up. "Wha?"

"There's some girl outside looking for you. She says she's your sister."

He blinked at her groggily until her words sunk in. "What? Maru's here?"

"Yep. I dunno what she wants." Karina shrugged off any other questions and went to put the groceries away. Sebastian remained in his chair for another minute, frowning and rubbing his hands over his face to wake himself up more. He stood, stopped to smell the shirt he was currently wearing and make sure it wasn't too offensive, and dithered for another few minutes just inside the door before finally opening it to find Maru standing where Karina had left her, looking inquisitive as always.

Her face brightened as soon as he appeared, leaving him feeling off-kilter. "There you are! I was wondering if I had the wrong place."

"I was asleep," he mumbled, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Uh... what are you doing here?" They hadn't parted on the best terms, had never been on the best terms to begin with. Secretly, Sebastian had always suspected that Demetrius wanted to make sure Maru got to be the first to leave Pelican Town for the city, or at least to make sure that she got out before Sebastian did. Just one more way to drive his inferiority home.

It hadn't worked out that way though, he reminded himself, balling his hands into fists hidden inside his pockets. He had scrimped and saved and worked his ass off, and he had made it out. He had his own home, his own work. He was supporting himself and it didn't matter what his family thought of it anymore. They had lost their say.

"Dad arranged some interview for me at a big hospital here, some kind of lab tech position," Maru said, mirroring Sebastian's hands-in-the-pockets pose, though sheepishly rather than defensively.

Typical. "Oh. Makes sense." Maru looked away, sensing the  barbs in his tone, and an awkward silence settled between them. "So how did that go?" Sebastian asked finally, forcing himself into civility with the reminder that her visit was almost certainly of her own design; he doubted that Demetrius cared at all what he was up to, and had long ago accepted that he would forever be third place in his mother's heart (fourth, if you considered her love for carpentry). In his estimation, neither seemed likely to goad Maru into taking time out of her busy schedule to check in on him.

"I didn't go."

Sebastian had already opened his mouth to respond with some platitude about how he was sure it went great for her, since everything always did, when he realized what she had said. For a moment, he stood there with his mouth hanging open before he snapped his jaw shut again with a click. "I... why not?" Nerves? Had she chickened out and then come looking for reassurance from him? The idea was absurd.

Maru sighed, shoving her hands deeper into her pockets and looking at the ground. "I didn't even want it in the first place. I tried telling Dad over and over, but he wouldn't hear it. He bought me a train ticket and hotel arrangements and everything, so I had to at least come to the city." She glanced up to meet his eyes for just a moment. "I figured that if I was going to be here anyway, I wanted to see you."

"Why?"

Maru sighed again, more forcefully, expelling years of pent-up frustration in a short breath. "Why shouldn't I want to see you? You're the only brother I've got. I thought maybe... maybe since you had your own place and everything now, you wouldn't hate me for taking up your space and getting in the way? I don't know. I was worried about you. You don't call, you don't email, you don't even write... If we didn't hear about you from Sam and Abigail, we wouldn't even know you were alive!" She held his gaze for longer this time before looking away again, dejected.

Sebastian bit at the inside of his cheek, unsure where to even start unpacking all that Maru had just said. "Who said I hated you?" He mumbled. "I never said that."

"You've never said 'I love you' either, you know. Not even once since we were kids."

"I..." Fuck. What was he supposed to say to that? It was true, they both knew it was true, and Sebastian just couldn't find the words to even begin to try and explain how he had always just rested on the assumption that Maru was keeping him at arm's length just as he did to her, that all the distance between them had been borne out of the same condescension and disdain for him that Demetrius had never made a secret of. How was he supposed to react to her showing up on his doorstep out of nowhere and blowing all of that right out of the water?

He had been comfortable after a while, staying in his "Disappointment Basement-dweller Son" box, only speaking to his family when spoken to, coasting along on the scraps of affection and attention that he was given while Maru thrived. He had just assumed that she wanted it that way. It all worked out in her favor, didn't it?

"I love you," Maru said softly. Her lower lip was trembling and she was blinking rapidly, trying not to tear up. "You're my big brother and I love you, and I- I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay."

Sebastian sighed, reaching up to rub the back of his neck. "I'm fine. Look, don't cry, okay? You know I wasn't trying to make you cry, um-" God, what did he do to make this better? He hadn't budgeted out enough mental power for this kind of emotional roller coaster today. "Look, if I say you can come inside and make you lunch and everything, will you not cry?"

Maru lifted her glasses and swiped one arm across her eyes. "I'm not crying," she said unconvincingly. She replaced her glasses and managed a wobbly smile. "But... lunch sounds good. I haven't eaten yet today."

Sebastian bit back a lecturing comment about keeping a healthy diet; god knew he was in no position to go on about that. Instead, he nodded and opened the door, gesturing for Maru to come in.

\---

Maru gave him a hug when she left, squeezing him firmly enough that he could still feel the pressure of her arms around his ribs when she finally moved away. It was difficult to recall the last time he had been really hugged.

Karina slunk out of the bedroom late in the evening and, finding the kitchen empty, headed out to the parking garage. Sebastian was just pulling out on his motorcycle, but stopped when he saw her. He flipped the visor of his helmet up and waited for her to speak, if she was going to. He was too exhausted, both emotionally and physically. Years' worth of dirty laundry had been haphazardly aired out in the span of a couple hours, and he was sure there were still dozens of half-forgotten things they hadn't even touched on.

"So how many times did she ask if we were a couple?"

Sebastian snorted in spite of himself. "After the first couple of times, she wasn't asking so much as heavily implying it." He didn't ask if she found it absurd.

Karina's lips twitched in amusement. "Where are you going?"

He shrugged. "Nowhere in particular." After a pause, he asked, "Do you want to go for a ride?"

She eyed the motorcycle doubtfully. "I don't have a helmet."

Sebastian removed the helmet and held it out, eyebrows raised in wordless offering. Karina took it after a moment's hesitation. "What about you?"

"It'll be fine. I've been driving for years and never had an accident, and there aren't many people on the roads right now anyway."

Karina considered, and then put the helmet on and slid onto the seat behind him, securing her arms around his waist.

"Watch your feet," Sebastian called back, and she nodded in reply, doing as instructed.

The city flew by, neon signs lighting up and windows reflecting the last of the setting sun. They caught snapshot moments of people leaving work, greeting friends, going to bars, arguing over fender benders in parking lots. The sun slid below the horizon, giving way to an inky blackness dotted with tiny stars.

They finally pulled to a stop on a grassy overlook at the city's outskirts. The grass was dry and the air still warm, so they sat on the ground, looking out over the skyline.

Karina broke the companionable silence first. "People kept telling me that you couldn't find sights in the city that you could around Sharance. I guess that's true, but it goes both ways."

"Yeah," Sebastian agreed. "I dunno, I like it. It's too quiet out in the mountains. It's too... big, you know? Everything goes on forever and you feel tiny."

Karina nodded. "The city is big too, but at least it's full of people."

Sebastian half-shrugged. "I could do without a lot of people sometimes, but I get what you mean."

They fell into silence again, watching as traffic grew more sparse and the lights in some buildings began to dim.

"Is it nice?" Karina asked quietly, after a while. "Having a sister?"

Sebastian bit at his lower lip. "It probably could have been better. That's on me I guess, but I wasn't the only one who made it hard."

She nodded in understanding, inviting him to continue without voicing a question. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

"We're half-siblings. Different dads. Demetrius, Maru's dad... he never outright said so, but he's always hated me, at least as far as I can tell. Mom was really torn up when my dad left, and I guess I remind everyone of him. To them, I'm a deadbeat like he was. Nobody took my job seriously, I couldn't go to college because we didn't have the money and I couldn't get a scholarship..." He shrugged again, movements jerky. "I guess Mom and Demetrius can't forgive me for leaving, either. Just another way I'm like my dad."

Karina leaned back on her hands and lifted her eyes from the city, looking at the sky. "I don't remember my dad," she said finally. "I was really young when he died. He went out to a dungeon one day and never came back." She sighed. "For a long time, I told myself he had just gone somewhere else and would come back eventually. Like if I was really good, and I helped Mom out in the store a lot, or when I finally grew up and got married. And then for a while after that, I thought maybe I would go looking for him in the city. Eventually that just turned into getting to the city, no matter what. I knew he was never coming back by then. I finally got it from some of the older people in town that they... they'd found evidence, you know, of what happened to him. He didn't just run away. But..."

"But?" Sebastian prompted when she trailed off.

"But... sometimes, I still get angry at him anyways. I think of what could have happened if he hadn't gone alone, or if he had had better weapons, or if he had just come home when things got dangerous instead of going on. I didn't know him really, but I could still tell when he should have been there. Things remind me of him, in a way. I guess that's why Mom holds onto the store, too. She wanted me to take it over, you know, but I never wanted to. It's not just the memories, it's- I have to make my own way. Whatever I choose, it'll be mine."

"Yeah," Sebastian agreed quietly. She looked at him, and he held her gaze for a long time without saying anything.

"I'm sleepy," she announced, and laid down with her head on his leg without further preamble. He started, but didn't push her away, resting his hand on her arm after a moment's hesitation.

"We can head back if you want."

"Later." She yawned and then closed her eyes, as if that settled the matter. Within moments, her breathing had slowed and deepened, so he supposed it did.

He stared out over the glittering city, thinking about everything and nothing, but mostly just running his fingers through her hair.


End file.
